Black Jack (33 page)

Lilly turned to him in shock. “Are you crazy? Do you know what she’s planning? I’m not

going back to the house. She’s having me committed, Travis, and Harrington bodyguards just

tried to kill me.”

A hard, cold smile formed on his lips. “Does she know what I have planned, sweetheart?”

he asked her. “Trust me, neither she nor Ridgemore will dare to defy me once I show up with

you. And this time, trust me, I won’t be leaving until this is settled, baby, and you’re safe.”

Her lips curled mockingly. “Strange you say that.” She stared at him now, so damned happy

to see him that she could barely stand it. So furious that she hadn’t been able to find him, that

he hadn’t been there when she needed him. “You didn’t tell me you were leaving.”

His eyes narrowed on her. “I left security.”

“I didn’t need your damned security,” she hissed as she moved closer, staring up at him, her

body shaking she was so damned mad at him. “I needed to know you would be gone. I needed

to know to watch my own ass while you weren’t here.”

“You should know that anyway.” He reached out, grabbed her arms and jerked her closer. “I

left security, Lilly. I would have never left you unguarded.”

“Then where the hell were they?” Her finger stabbed into his chest. “What am I supposed

to do, damn you? Kill the whole fucking family while I’m waiting on your damned security?

Or just hope for the best as the guys in white suits drag me off?”

“No one would have gotten you out of that damned house. I had men in place. If you had

given them time, they would have gotten you out and gotten you to safety.”

“Well, excuse me for not twiddling my thumbs while I wait on you to take care of poor

little ole me.” She tried for American Southern, it came out rather mangled. She blamed it on

her anger. She was certain she had pulled it off before.

“Don’t push me right now,” he snarled back at her. “Do you have any idea the hell I’ve

gone through while trying to find you? Do you have any idea how close I was to not getting

here in time?”

“Do you have any idea how close I was to blowing them all to hell and back?” she snapped

back. “I might not remember jack shit but don’t think I don’t know what I’m doing. And don’t

think I will ever tolerate you disappearing like that again without one word of warning. Not

while you’re sleeping in my fucking bed.”

“Wow. He’s sleeping in your bed. Do I get details now or later?” Raisa laughed behind her.

Lilly ignored Raisa. She glared at Travis. “Find a place to talk. Fast. We have things to

clear up, love, and we’ll do it rather quickly. Or you’ll wish you’d never seen me, met me, or

touched me. I promise you that.”

She turned on her heel and stalked away from him. It was all she could do to keep her

hands away from her guns.

That way, she didn’t shoot him just for being a man. For leaving. For not letting her know.

For making her fear he would never return.

in a perfect world,
she would have known there was

security in love. There was a mother’s dedication, compassion, and devotion as she had once

believed. There was a family’s loyalty. In a perfect world, there was the knowledge that

tomorrow would bring another day to add to the vault of memories and love.

Where had her perfect world gone?

Lilly sat on the bed in the darkened bedroom of another safe house, this one a large

apartment in the heart of Hagerstown only a few blocks from the bar she had often met Travis

in.

She stared into the dark but it was memories she saw. Her father’s laughter, his gentle

voice, and his loyalty. She saw their walks, remembered their talks. She saw her mother,

always distant from them, always appearing amused, yet accepting of the bond they had had.

She’d been wrong.

Jared had often stood with Angelica, quiet, intense. Her brother had always been very

intense, very studious, but she’d believed he was being protective.

Where had her family gone?

Looking down, she could barely make out the dim outline of her fingers as they picked at

each other. A nervous habit she’d had all her life. Her mother had often lectured her over it.

Lilly had seen those lectures as loving, as a mother’s concern. But she remembered now the

times that her mother had commented that perhaps it spoke of a deeper problem. That perhaps

Lilly would feel better if she spoke to a doctor about her problem.

Lilly stared at her fingers. Perhaps it hadn’t been her problem that had needed to be

addressed.

She remembered, although she hadn’t wanted to remember before, the horrible fights her

parents had once had. Not that she had known what the fights were about at the time. All she

remembered were the sounds of the raging arguments that had come from their suite.

They had argued over her often.

How many times had her mother tried to have her confined during those years that Lilly

had believed she was safe and secure with her mother’s love, with her brother’s loyalty? That

it was all simply threats.

She nibbled at her lower lip as she felt the pain gather in her soul before bleeding through

her spirit. Where was that perfect world she had believed existed?

This was why she had chosen a far different life when she’d had the chance. But still, how

desperately she had missed her family.

She had forgotten the monsters that existed in that perfect world.

“Lilly.” A soft knock at the door heralded Travis’s arrival.

She wiped the tears quickly from her face as the door cracked open, allowing a slender ray

of light to pierce the darkness.

“You have a very bad habit of disappearing when I don’t want you to, Travis,” she told him

quietly as the door closed behind him, enclosing them once again in the darkness.

“Can I turn the light on?” he asked.

“I’d much prefer you don’t.”

She watched as he paused, his dark shape shifting slightly before he moved to the bed as

though he needed no light to see by.

“Whoever is trying to kill me is someone associated with, or within, my family. Isn’t that

right?”

He eased down on the side of the bed. “That’s what we suspect.”

She nodded slowly. “How would they have found me after the first attempt to kill me? A

new face, new hair, new eye color, plastic surgery.” She rubbed her fingertips together. “No

fingerprints. How did they find me?”

“We don’t know.” He sighed. “That’s one of the things I’ve been trying to find out. So far

though, all signs point to the Harrington camp.”

She gave another slow nod. “The first attempt was during the party. Father was in a

meeting when I came to the office. I remember that much. He’d been investigating the

embezzlement from several companies Harringtons owned or had shares in. The money was

going into an account proven to fund terrorism. I had been helping him for months, but those

final months, he pushed me out of it. We argued over that.”

“He was trying to protect you?” he asked.

“I think perhaps he was,” she said as she looked down at her hands to realize she was

picking at her fingers once again. “Do you think it was Uncle Desmond?”

Her father and uncle had been very close, but she remembered that Desmond hadn’t known

that her father worked for MI5, and he had cautioned Lilly against letting anyone in the family

know that she was as well.

Even her mother hadn’t known what Lilly was doing.

“Let’s say he’s at the top of the list,” Travis answered. “We’re focusing on him.”

Lilly felt her heart clench at the thought. “Father trusted him. He loved him.”

“The ones we trust the most are often the ones who will betray us first,” he said, gently.

“Whoever it is, Lilly, whatever their motive, they meant to see you dead. Today made the

fourth attempt on your life, and this one was professionally contracted.”

“How did they find us?” She frowned in confusion, still trying to figure that one out. “My

cell was turned off. I didn’t contact anyone. How did they find me?”

“You could have been followed,” he answered softly. “Several of the assailants were in

your uncle’s employ. Any one of them could have followed you to the safe house, then

returned. It could have taken time to call the others together, to plan a reasonably successful

assault. Two days isn’t much time to plan the assassination of four women. One of whom was

known to be able to take care of her herself quite well.”

“You could have planned and executed that one within hours,” she pointed out.

“But I’m better than they are.” He chuckled.

Lilly allowed a small smile to touch her lips, but she couldn’t bring herself to laugh.

“They’re my family,” she whispered. “My mother and brother, my uncle. They’re all I’ve

ever known for love and security. What the hell happened, Travis?”

He breathed out heavily. “As long as you were the child you were supposed to be, then you

were well loved,” he told her. “Perhaps it’s that society, that generation, or just that small

clique. I’m more inclined to say it’s a very small clique that believes in committing a child for

daring to have free will. Most parents suffer the minor embarrassments and disappointments

as a part of life.”

She let her head fall back against the wall behind her and stared up at the dark ceiling.

“Mother never showed me this side of herself. Not to this extent.”

“Or your father never let you see it?” Travis suggested. “He tried to protect you.”

“Maybe.” She moved to swing her legs off the bed but he stretched his arm across her

thighs and held her in place.

She was suddenly very conscious of the thin robe and her nudity beneath it. The shower

she’d had earlier had done nothing to still the nervous tension racing through her.

She’d wanted to run. She wanted to fight. She wanted to find a place to expend the fury

inside her before she was forced to return to the house her uncle had rented for the summer.

“Travis, now isn’t a good time.” She still hadn’t managed to forgive him for his absence.

He chuckled lightly. “Bullshit, Lilly. You have all that energy dying to burst free and I’ll be

damned if I didn’t miss you like hell.”

“Oh yeah, you missed me so much,” she mocked him. “All those phone calls, checking up

on me, phone sex at one in the morning. It was so much fun.”

She pushed against his shoulder, but not really with enough force to dislodge him. When it

came to Travis, saying no wasn’t an easy thing to do.

“There was phone sex? Was it good?” Dark, roughened by arousal, his voice whispered

across her senses like a velvety caress.

“It would have been if it had been more than simply in my dreams,” she bit out, clearly

remembering the anger and fear that had torn through her when she realized she was only

days away from being committed.

“I wouldn’t have allowed you to be taken from me like that, Lilly,” he said gently, as

though he knew exactly what she thought, what she felt.

“You couldn’t have stopped it. You weren’t here, remember?” she pointed out angrily.

“Lilly, I didn’t leave you unprotected.”

“I protected myself.” She pushed at his shoulder harder this time. “Let me go, Travis. This

discussion is becoming boring.”

“Then get unbored.” His voice was harder, though no less sexy. “I didn’t betray you, Lilly,

nor did I let you down.”

“You weren’t there,” she snapped furiously. “You didn’t even tell me you were leaving,

Travis.”

“Dammit, Lilly, it was a quick trip out. I should have been back before the next night. My

sat phone was damaged or I would have gotten your message and returned faster.”

“So what is this relationship then? Or is it not even a relationship? Friends with benefits?

Fuck buddies? What, Travis? Tell me the rules now so I at least know what to expect the next

time you decide to disappear for however long.”

“You want to know what the hell this relationship is?” He came over her, looming above

her like a dark shadow of sensual wrath.

“It would be nice.” Her voice was weak and breathy. She sounded like a damned sex kitten

or something. Hell, she was starting to feel like one.

“This relationship is completely monogamous,” he growled as his hand smoothed down her

shoulder, her arm, gripped her hip. “And I’m a possessive bastard, Lilly. Did I ever mention

that?”

She shook her head. No, he hadn’t mentioned that at all. Perhaps he should have; she would

have melted far sooner.

“So that would make this relationship fairly exclusive, wouldn’t you say?” He jerked the

hem of her robe to her thighs. “That makes you mine, baby. No friends with benefits. No fuck

buddies. Simply fucking mine.”

“Call next time,” she snapped.

“Fine.” His other hand gripped her neck, held her still and kissed her with enough force,

enough hunger, to curl her toes.

It was like this with him. Like a fire blazing through the darkest night, stilling the rage and

the pain and replacing it with hunger and a sense of emotional security. There was no true

safety, not in their lives, not in their line of work, but there was this.

Deep, desperate kisses filled with hunger and heat branded her lips and her senses as

pleasure began to wash over her in heavy, heated waves. Travis jerked her to him and Lilly

found herself being lowered to the bed as he came over her, his hands tearing at the belt of the